1
Then Balaam said to Balak, "Build seven altars for me here, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams."
2
And Balak did just as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
3
Then Balaam said to Balak, "Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatever He shows me I will tell you." So he went to a desolate height.
4
And God met Balaam, and he said to Him, "I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.
5
Then the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, "Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak."
6
So he returned to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering, he and all the princes of Moab.
7
And he took up his oracle and said: "Balak the king of Moab has brought me from Aram, From the mountains of the east. 'Come, curse Jacob for me, And come, denounce Israel!'
8
"How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how shall I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?
9
For from the top of the rocks I see him, And from the hills I behold him; There! A people dwelling alone, Not reckoning itself among the nations.
10
"Who can count the dust of Jacob, Or number one-fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, And let my end be like his!"
11
Then Balak said to Balaam, "What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and look, you have blessed them bountifully!"
12
So he answered and said, "Must I not take heed to speak what the Lord has put in my mouth?"